A record of the activities, quirks and issues that are Boulder Belt Eco-Farm of Eaton, Ohio

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Thursday, January 31, 2008

Wm G Owsley's Obit.

Here is my father's obit, I am not sure who wrote it but it looks like, his widow, Rebecca, writing style. It sums up nicely a well spent life.

William Gardner Owsley, 83, passed away peacefully at 4 o’clock Sunday, January 27, 2008, without regret, surrounded by family, at his Point Lookout home near Au Gres, Michigan .

Bill, also known to some old friends as “Owl,” was born July 28, 1924, in Idaho Falls, Idaho, to Merritt Miner Owsley, a Montana born-rancher in Mud Lake, Idaho, and Ada Heath Owsley, of Ionia, Michigan.

Bill returned to Ionia with his mother to enter school, often summering in Idaho and working with his dad. He graduated from Ionia High School in 1942. At I.H.S. he was a member of the track team, and as captain of the struggling football team once inspired his teammates by playing most of the game with a broken collarbone (they lost anyway).

He entered University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he completed his first year of college as a philosophy major before joining the Marines in February 1943, spending most of his World War II service as a radio operator in the Pacific Theater. He served for a time with a member of the Navaho “code talkers.” He never forgot the Morse code he learned and used, and often amused children and friends by tapping out their names or funny phrases.

After his discharge at the end of the war, he returned to the University of Michigan, where he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. In 1947 he married Marjorie Rutherford, of Lansing. Upon earning his undergraduate degree, Bill and his new wife took the accumulated savings from his service years and spent a year in Paris, France, hanging out with other Americans in Paris (including Art Buchwald and William Styron), and soaking up European culture. After returning from France, Bill embarked upon a program in Fine Arts, studying art history and painting, completing a master’s degree in Fine Arts in 1953.

Daughter Margaret was born in 1950, and son Scott was born in 1955 after Bill began teaching at Monticello College in Alton, Illinois. He later taught one year at Berea College, in Berea, Ky., before beginning his career at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, teaching more than 30 years in the architecture department. Daughter Lucy was born in Oxford in 1963.

To family and friends, his students, colleagues, total strangers, and especially children, Bill was a storyteller, playmate, mentor, challenger, talker, animal lover, and first, foremost and always, a teacher to all. He was a prolific painter, and continued to create and show his work throughout his life. In all his relationships, he guided individuals to discover the delight in their own creativity, of whatever sort. In addition to his classes in the architecture department, Bill taught several large sections of a popular art survey course to thousands of students. This meant that eventually Bill encountered former students everywhere he went, all over the world.

In 1971 Bill married Rebecca McNamara, bringing together his children and her son Stephen and daughter Heather (and two dogs, three cats, a couple of gerbils, a tank of guppies, a newt, and ultimately a horse) and sharing an historic 1867 house that was perpetually under restoration. Summers were spent at Point Lookout in the AuGres area, near where Bill always had vacationed as a youth with his family. In 1964, he purchased the property that would become his home after retirement in 1989.

Although he traveled extensively during these years, it was at Point Lookout where he and all the family always returned and felt most at home. The open-door policy at Point Lookout welcomed dozens of visitors over the years, from friends of the children and grandchildren to former students to fellow travelers and former colleagues and neighbors.

The last decade of Bill’s life was spent cultivating his pleasures and passions, old and new. He re-built the family cottage to include the heart of the original structure which housed so many memories, and to accommodate new experiences as well. The rooms were never big enough to hold all the books, but always big enough to hold everyone who wanted to be there. He loved summers swimming and sailing Lake Huron, and quiet winters of cross country skiing around the Point. Did a summer day ever arrive on the beach at 4 p.m. when he didn’t say, “Well, the sun’s over the yard-arm somewhere. Can I get anyone a beer?” He loved the walks, and the woods, and the sounds of the wind across the water, his family and friends and continuing interest in ideas. He loved life. He only half-jokingly requested that his tombstone inscription be, “Lucky Guy!”

Very sorry for your loss. I was one of your Dad's Architecture students at Miami U. just before he retired and have very vivid and fond memories of him. He taught my first drawing class; charcoal drawings of a tree just outside Almuni Hall. He impressed on me the visceral in learning, in art.

Boulder Belt Farm Share Initiative

About Me

I am a woman in my late 40's who's reason for living is to grow organic food and revive local foodsheds. I was raised by bleeding heart, liberal intellectuals in a small SW Ohio College town. In my life I have been a chef, a horse groom and trainer, an archaeologist, a student, an artist and for the past 12 years a small, contrary, sustainable farmer and farmers market manager. You might call me a regular renaissance woman.

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12 Reasons to Buy Local (and Organic)

1)Freshness.Locally-grown organic fruits and vegetables are usually harvested within 24 hours of being purchased by the consumer. Produce from California can't be that fresh.

2)Taste.Produce picked and eaten at the height of freshness tastes better.

3)Nutrition.Nutritional value declines, often dramatically, as time passes after harvest. Because locally-grown produce is freshest, it is more nutritionally complete.

4)Purity.Eighty percent of American adults say they are concerned about the safety of the food they eat. They worry about residues of pesticides and fungicides. These materials are not permitted in an organic production system either before or after harvest.

5)Regional Economic Health.Buying locally grown food keeps money within the community. This contributes to the health of all sectors of the local economy, increasing the local quality of life.

6)Variety.Organic farmers selling locally are not limited to the few varieties that are bred for long distance shipping, high yields, and shelf life. Often they raise and sell wonderful unusual varieties you will never find on supermarket shelves.

7)Soil Stewardship.Soil health is essential for the survival of our species. Conventional farming practices are rapidly depleting topsoil fertility. Creating and sustaining soil fertility is the major objective for organic growers.

8)Energy Conservation.Buying locally grown organic foods decreases dependence on petroleum, a non- renewable energy source. One fifth of all petroleum now used in the United States is used in Agriculture. Organic production systems do not rely upon the input of petroleum derived fertilizers and pesticides and thus save energy at the farm. Buying from local producers conserves additional energy at the distribution level.

9)Environmental Protection.Soil erosion; pesticide contamination of soil, air, and water; nitrate loading of waterways and wells; and elimination of planetary biodiversity are some of the problems associated with todayís predominate farming methods. Organic growers use practices that protect soil, air, and water resources; and that promote biodiversity.

10)Cost.Conventional food processes don't reflect the hidden costs of the environmental, health and social consequences of predominate production practices- of, for instance, correcting a water supply polluted by agricultural runoff, or obtaining medical treatment for pesticide induced illness suffered by farmers or consumers. When these and other hidden costs are taken into account, as they should be, locally grown organic foods are seen clearly for the value they are, even if they cost a few pennies more.

11)A Step Toward Regional Food Self Reliance. Dependency on far away food sources leaves a region vulnerable to supply disruptions, and removes any real accountability of producer to consumer. It also tends to promote larger, less diversified farms that hurt both the environment and local economies/communities. Regional food production systems, on the other hand, keep the food supply in the hands of many, providing interesting job and self-employment opportunities, and enabling people to influence how their food is grown.

12)Passing on the Stewardship Ethic.When you buy locally produced organic food you cannot help but raise the consciousness of your friends and family about how food buying decisions can make a difference in your life and the life of your community; and about how this basic act is connected to planetary issues.